Princess tiara III

So this is the third tiara cake I've made. It seems that this is a favourite with all young princess-wannabes! :) Even my own girls tell me they want one like this for their next birthday! Though come to think of it, they say that about most every cake they see!

Anyway, I've been making mostly cupcakes and single tier cakes lately, as I find large and multi-tiered cakes too time consuming, considering the fact that I have only one teensy oven (with frustratingly uneven heating, by the way). I usually have to bake in multiple batches and end up taking hours just baking the cake, when all I really want to do is decorate it!!

However, I am in the opinion that tiara cakes are best when tiered. I think it adds to the 'regal-ness' of the cake. So when a customer requested a two-tiered tiara cake, I couldn't say no.

So here's my third tiara cake. It's all chocolate cake, bottom 7" and top 6". The cakes are covered in soft fondant. I made the tiara a week ahead, from gumpaste, so that it would have time to dry nice and hard. This time I used more dried spaghetti to attach the curly bits to the main frame of the tiara, in an attempt to make the structure a sturdy as possible.

My client loved the cake and I hope it helped make her daughter's birthday a memorable one! :)

Lovey-dovey sweet surprise

I got an online order from a girl who wasn't in town. She wanted a dozen chocolate cupcakes for her boyfriend's birthday. It was going to be a surprise.

My client asked if I could call him to him on that day, and tell him to come and pick up a package from my shop. (I own a pharmacy, not a bakery, so that would throw anyone off a bit!) Under no circumstances was I allowed to tell him who it was from! I didn't mind helping her out, cause it sounded like fun! :)

The problem was, on the day  itself, this guy did not answer his phone!! I called a dozen times and left plenty of messages! It was night, by the time I got him and he managed to get to my shop just before it closed!!

After receiving his 'package', he called me and tried to get me to tell him who it was from! I played my part and told him I did not know as it was ordered online! :)

Anyway, my client said he found out in the end and it was a pleasant birthday surprise!

I love playing a part in 'love' and 'happiness'! :)

Bob the Builder

An old schoolmate ordered a dozen chocolate cuppies for her son's 4th birthday. He is a fan of Bob the Builder, and luckily the Debbie Brown Children's Cartoon Character book which I have, includes Bob the Builder. You could make gumpaste figures just by looking at pictures of the character, but it helps so, so much to have step-by-step instructions.

So the cupcakes are chocolate fudge cakes topped with chocolate ganache. They are covered in fondant, and the figures are made from gumpaste.

I love Bob the most, of course. I especially love all the details on his tool belt. Other than the tools, his checkered shirt was pretty time consuming as well. I did not want to cheat and use food markers, because tiny red fondant squares would give a much more solid colour. Food markers would produce ill-defined lines and also could bleed into the yellow. Intricate details are always time consuming, but they really make all the difference!

I made his two friends (Sorry i do not know their names!! The cement mixer is Dizzy or something??) in a bit of a rush, so I'm not that satisfied with the result. I'll try them again soon.

Monsterz!!

Annie was invited to a friend's birthday party, and I had no idea what to get as a present. So, I decided to make a batch of cupcakes for her to bring instead.  I am so pleased with this idea, that I have decided that whenever the kids go for a party, they should bring cupcakes as gifts. At least it's something different from the usual stationery and such...

Well anyway, Annie's friend was a boy, so I had to think of a 'boyish' design. I'm much better at cute, pink designs, so it took me a while to come up with a compromise. No pink, but plenty cute..... monsters!


My favourite monster...

Stars and Stripes

A customer wanted some cupcakes for her sister whose birthday was coming up. Her sister works at a popular local radio station called Hitz FM. So, she requested for a dozen Hitz FM themed cuppies.

I chose to go with a simple stars and stripes design in the company's colours; yellow and purple. These are chocolate fudge cupcakes topped with chocolate ganache and covered with fondant.

Boxed and ready to go!

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Happy caking!! ;)

Star Wars

I just realized that I missed out a post. These are the Star Wars cuppies which I made a while back. A friend of mine requested them for her brother-in-law's birthday. They are yummy orange cupcakes topped with bittersweet chocolate ganache swirls.

My friend came over to help with the cuppies. She made the Darth Vader and R2D2 toppers, as well as some of the light sabers. It's the first time she's tried her hand at fondant modelling and she's a natural I must say. Look at all the detail...

For Darth Vader and R2D2, I made some plastic templates first, using plastic transparency sheets. I then used the templates as a guide to cut out the shapes, and then the other fondant details were added on.

Princess Leia and the Ewoks were cut using small circle cutters. I love Leia's hair! :) I'm not too happy with the Ewoks though.

Anyway, I hope Jedi Jason enjoyed his birthday cuppies!

Fondant

So a friend ordered some cupcakes which she needed for work. They were simple apple green and orange cupcakes with the letters "B" and "E" on them. She also wanted them to be packed in boxes of twos to be given out.

After a few mishaps with fondant, namely fondant melting and slipping off the Barney cake, and also fondant melting and dripping off the safari cupcakes(!!), I decided to try a different brand of fondant.

I have tried Snow Ice fondant before, and I find it awfully tacky and though it's very elastic and easy to work with, I doesn't dry well. Or rather, it doesn't dry at all!!! So I crossed that out from my list a long time ago. It is a Malaysian product. I also found mold growing on the fondant in a couple of packets I bought, so I really doubt the quality of this product.

So far, I've mostly been using Bakels fondant. It's made in New Zealand and is really soft. It is therefore harder to work with. It can become very soft in our climate and stretches and tears easily. I would not recommend this to a beginner, but I prefer it's taste and it dries up nicely. However, the mishaps I mentioned before were all with Bakels fondant. I think it's too soft for our climate and though it can produce great results, the finished product is very unstable in our climate. I even tried making flowers with it, and they dried out really nice at first, but wilted in the end.

This latest fondant which I used is Mauri fondant. It is also a Malaysian product and comes in huge tubs of 7kgs. It is very tough and elastic, much like cold chewing gum! I think I will need to develop biceps to be able to work this dough effortlessly! It was very, very hard to knead, but is very stable. I haven't had much experience with it yet, but it looks like it can stand our climate much better than the Bakels fondant. I shall try making gumpaste models with this Mauri fondant and see how it dries up. I hope I will be able to make flowers with it too!

One thing though, the taste of it is not as good as Bakels, but I figure stability is more important, since most people peel off the fondant anyway!! What about you? Do you eat your fondant?

Another fondant which I recently discovered was available here is Satin Ice fondant. I have heard that this fondant is delicious and is what most professionals overseas use. It is also the most expensive, since the ones I found here are small tubs.

I realize though that what works for professionals in other countries does not necessarily work for us here. So right now, I will use Mauri fondant for the mean time and will try Satin Ice soon.

I still have more experimenting to go before I can decide on which fondant to stick with...

Princess Aurora

Last week, I got my biggest order ever. It was for a small Princess Aurora cake and 9 dozen cupcakes, which makes 108 altogether!

I was worried I could not handle the workload, but my client had requested for very simple designs for the cupcakes, so I figured it would most probably be doable... though I would definitely be losing some sleep over it!! :)

So anyway, her little daughter was turning 6 and she was of course, a princess fan. Her favourite was Princess Aurora from Disney's Sleeping Beauty. So her mum requested for Aurora on a 6" round cake in light pink and purple colours. The cupcakes were to be in the same pastel shades.

The cupcakes and cake were both American chocolate. Princess Aurora has an upside down cupcake under her skirt. The rest of her is made from gumpaste.

I like how her hands turned out... chubby and cute.

In the jungle...

A friend of mine wanted some cupcakes for her son to bring to school for his birthday, and also a cake to celebrate with the family that night.

She chose a safari theme and sent me a few pictures she got off the internet for inspiration. The cupcake design was inspired by Cupcake Pantry's lovely Safari Cupcakes which you can see on Flickr here.

These are the cuppies I made, but unfortunately my friend told me that they melted and began dripping down the sides towards the evening!! *horror* (they were needed for school the next morning)

I'm always worried about stuff like this happening, so I try to hand over my creations as last minute as possible. This is because when they're with me, I make sure the temperature and humidity is just right. I place them directly under an air-conditioner, and the temperature must not be too cold, around 27*C. I also place containers of silica gel near them, so excess moisture is absorbed. And sometimes if it gets too cold or too hot, I have to play it by ear and adjust the temperature. I can't expect my customers to be as obsessive as me, so the best way is to hand over the cakes and cupcakes right before the celebration!

Anyway, it may have been that the weather was way too hot that day, or the fresh cream that I used had too high a water content and turned the fondant soggy??? Once again, I do not really know. Fondant is so temperamental, it's just so frustrating! It can look all nice and matte and stable, then in an instant start sweating and getting gloppy!!

To be on the safe side, I shall just stick to buttercream from now on... The hot and humid weather here really is the worst possible kind for fondant *sigh*

I felt so bad about the cuppies, and I'm glad at least the cake turned out well. Everything was perfect except for a bit of sagging in the fondant covering. But, that was just a minor blemish.

The animals and leaves and the no.3 are made of gumpaste. I used wire to raise the elephant's trunk and also to provide support for the no.3. I am so afraid of my pieces falling apart once it's with the customer, that I will use as much reinforcement as necessary, in the form of wires and bamboo sticks.

Oh yes, I got to try out one of the gadgets I bought from my trip to Singapore recently! I am in love with my new alphabet cutters!!! They have an ejector function, so no more incessant tap, tap, tapping!!!

Fondant cake decorators out there will know exactly what I mean. For most alphabet cutters, you have to cut them and then they will be stuck in the cutter and what you have to do is to tap, tap, tap and tap it again until the small pieces of fondant come loose. Trust me, it's no fun. So anyway, these new cutters have an ejector  piece at the back, and all you have to do is press it and viola, the pieces come out so easily!  

*happy happy*

 All packed and ready to go!